Effects of social influence on consumers' voluntary adoption of innovations prompted by others

Research on innovation adoption focuses on voluntary adoption, although non-voluntary or prompted adoption decisions are prevalent in real life, especially for high-tech products and services. This study aims to investigate the effect of social influence on consumers' innovation adoption in the context of prompted adoption. In particular, the present paper models the duration of voluntary adoption as a function of social norms, attractiveness of the prompter, number of prompters, and so on. Prior knowledge is not only a control variable, but also a moderating variable for a few social factors. This paper validates models relying on the illustrative application of a mobile gift service called Gifticon. The results provide much insight for marketing practitioners on how to accelerate consumers' adoption behavior and therefore the diffusion of innovative products.     

Consumer perceived value and impulse buying behavior on mobile commerce: The moderating effect of social influence

This study examines how the consumers' perceived values (utilitarian and hedonic values) impact their impulse buying behavior (IBB) in the mobile commerce (m-commerce) context. Moreover, we view interpersonal influence as a moderator and test its impact on the correlation between the consumers' perceived value and their IBB. Data were collected through a survey in China (n = 199). The results show that environmental stimuli significantly influence consumer perceived values (i.e., perceived utilitarian value and perceived hedonic value), and the consumers’ perception of hedonic value significantly and directly impacts their IBB. In addition, the interaction effect of perceived hedonic value and interpersonal influence significantly affects IBB. The findings provide valuable guidance for m-commerce retailers to induce consumer IBB.     

Reseller adoption of manufacturers' e-business tools: The impact of social enforcement, technology-relationship fit and the mediating role of reseller benefits

Manufacturer-reseller relationships are increasingly becoming technology-infused as distribution managers are employing e-business tools to streamline existing channels. This research examines the role of social enforcement, relationship-technology fit and the perceived reseller benefits in reseller adoption of manufacturers' e-business tools. The results of the empirical test involving a sample of 224 resellers suggest that social enforcement and technology-relationship factors impact reseller e-business adoption, while reseller benefits play a mediating role. Implications of these findings for researchers and managers are discussed.     

Understanding consumption in social virtual worlds: A sensemaking perspective on the consumption of virtual goods

Virtual consumption involves consuming virtual goods in cyberspace. Virtual consumption activities are evolving into an essential activity in social virtual worlds. Despite the growing importance of this activity, little research examines this phenomenon. The current study investigates the fundamental question of how users understand the consumption of virtual goods. Using the theory of social representations and core-periphery analysis, this study elicits and analyzes the social representation of virtual consumption. Study participants are 154 Second Life users. Results identify 32 concepts and relationships representing the collective perceptions of virtual consumption in this social virtual world. Social representation map interpretations point to several key themes that provide a foundation for future investigations of virtual economy consumption behavior.     

Image congruence effects on product evaluations: The role of self-monitoring and public/private consumption

Past research has demonstrated that congruence between brand image and self-image is positively related to consumers' product evaluations. Results from this study support the hypothesis that increased self-monitoring is associated with a greater effect of image congruence on consumers' evaluations of publicly consumed brands, but not privately consumed brands. Results also suggest that consumers' evaluations of publicly consumed brands are more affected by the congruence between brand image and ideal self-image than actual self-image, whereas actual and ideal congruence have equal effects on consumers' evaluations of privately consumed brands. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Using influence strategies to reduce marketing channel opportunism: The moderating effect of relational norms

In an empirical study of the North American lodging industry, we investigate the efficacy of influence strategies for managing opportunism in marketing channels. We posit that the effects of influence strategies upon opportunism are moderated by the extent to which relational norms characterize the channel exchange. The results support this moderating effect. In particular, we find that relational norms have an asymmetrical effect across coercive and noncoercive influence strategies. With high relational norms in the relationship, a channel member’s use of noncoercive influence strongly limits partner opportunism whereas the use of coercive influence exacerbates partner opportunism. In contrast, noncoercive influence intensifies and coercive influence mitigates partner opportunism under conditions of low relational norms. These findings offer first insights for curbing opportunism in marketing channel relationships with the simultaneous use of different socialization mechanisms. The authors acknowledge support for this study from the summer research program of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and the two hotel companies we studied and thank Reed Fisher for help with the data collection.     

Fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour: The moderating role of consumer social responsibility

This study aims to understand the drivers of fast‐food addiction and the role of consumer social responsibility (CSR) on the relationship between fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption. Due to growing health concerns, an increasing number of consumers have been avoiding the consumption of fast food. Based on a sample of 539 respondents, all pertaining to generation Y in Pakistan, this study tests a model including addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour. Empirical results provide strong evidence that individual and sociocultural factors together with advertising practices influence consumers’ fast‐food addiction. Results also reveal that CSR moderates the relationship between fast‐food addiction and anti‐consumption behaviour. Interestingly, the present study pioneers the discussion on how addiction can drive anti‐consumption. The findings can help public policy makers and managers to understand consumers’ anti‐consumption tendencies and help promote healthier consumption habits.     

Ethical judgment,subjective norms,and ethical consumption: The moderating role of moral certainty

Although various empirical works have attempted to explain the gap between consumers' ethical judgments and actual purchasing behaviours, the role of moral certainty has received relatively little attention. Moral certainty refers to the subjective sense of conviction or confidence one holds about his/her ethical judgment of an object. This study contributes to the ethical consumption literature by empirically examining whether the associations among consumers' ethical judgment, intention, and actual purchasing of ethical products (EPs) vary according to their level of moral certainty. We also examined the effect of subjective norms under the same conditions. The results of regression analysis revealed that the ethical judgment of EPs has a stronger effect on consumers' intention when consumers are more confident or convinced that buying EPs is fundamentally right, as compared to moral ambiguity. The effect of subjective norms was less effective under a high level of moral certainty. Nevertheless, the results indicated that there is no evidence for the claim that consumers’ intention towards EPs has a stronger effect on the actual purchasing of EPs under a high level of moral certainty. We discuss the implications of these findings to theory and practice.     

Consumption in the public eye: The influence of social presence on service experience

Continuous improvement in managing customer relationships is a necessity for companies wishing to remain competitive in today's global marketplace. The two studies presented herein respond to this need by developing and testing a new nomological net that features social presence and its moderators as antecedents to service satisfaction. Study 1 discovers that when service experiences are positive, social presence enhances service satisfaction. Study 2 examines the interaction between service experience valence, social presence type and self-construal prime. The results show that when an interdependent self-construal is primed, social presence (both in-group and out-group) increases service satisfaction (dissatisfaction) during a positive (negative) service encounter, whereas, when an independent self-construal is primed, social presence exerts little impact on service satisfaction. Managers can benefit from these findings by considering the impact of social presence as they design their servicescapes.     

Reexamining emerging market animosity toward western developed countries: A social dilemma in physical retailing consumption under normative influence

Focusing on physical retailing as an apparent target for boycotts in the context of emerging market consumers' animosity toward Western developed countries, this research pioneers in its in-depth examination of a social dilemma whereby consumers on one hand wish to avoid purchasing Western products/services to meet social expectations, while on the other wish to continue purchasing Western products/services, because of perceived Western product/service superiority, at the risk of social disapproval. Differing from conventional animosity research that largely neglects interpersonal influence, this research synthesizes social influence theory and social exchange theory to compare consumers’ purchase decisions in visible (physical retailing) and less-visible (online shopping) consumption contexts that are subject to different strengths of normative influence, and proposes a cost-benefit analysis to explain how consumers make trade-offs between social expectations and self-interest. Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Our study findings have important implications for future animosity research on consumer services that are subject to stronger normative pressure.     

The role of network embeddedness across multiple social networks: Evidence from mobile social network games

This article examines peer influences from network relationships within a social network game (i.e., embeddedness) and across such games (i.e., multiplexity). Drawing on social influence theory, we develop a bivariate Poisson model of users’ repeated visits and latent attrition that accommodates peer interaction after controlling for homophily. We estimate the model using data from two social network games with considerable overlap among network members. We find that friends who are only multiplex across games exert greater peer influence on users’ game visits than members who are embedded within a single game. We also determined that ignoring network multiplexity across games may lead firms to mistarget users due to biased peer influences of embedded friends. This result provides an unresearched explanation—strength of peer influence—for the mixed findings in previous literature on network embeddedness. We utilized our results to conduct several scenario analyses to demonstrate how firms can effectively manage users’ engagement and target users in multiple social network games.     

The role of trust and privacy concerns in using social media for e-retail services: The moderating role of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the customers habits of purchasing as well as shopping behaviours. This study seeks to develop an integrated model of the critical role of trust and privacy concerns in influencing consumers purchase behaviour through social media. It also explored the moderating role of COVID-19 on these relationships. Quantitative data were collected using survey strategy through questionnaires to address different levels of the study. Our proposed model was tested with 1,200 consumers, 600 prior to COVID-19 and 600 during COVID-19. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling was conducted to assess the hypotheses. The findings revealed that purchase intention depends on trust and privacy concerns. Information quality, security concerns, ease of use, privacy/security assurance seal, and disposition to third party certification are the main drivers of trust and privacy concerns. Furthermore, our proposed model during COVID-19 period has higher explanator power (R2 = 0.741) than before COVID-19 period (R2 = 0.603 and consumers buying behaviour has been increased during COVID-19. The results offer important implications for retailers and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of purchase behaviour through social media.     

Status consumption in newly emerging countries: The influence of personality traits and the mediating role of motivation to consume conspicuously

In emerging countries, individuals’ tendency to consume status products to display their wealth and new lifestyle is rising. To unlock the underlmathying reasons for consuming status products in emerging countries, this study brings attention to the mediating role of motivation to consume conspicuously as a missing link between consumers’ personality traits - susceptibility to interpersonal influence, need for uniqueness and status consumption. Using social identity and social comparison theory and drawing on data from 269 Bangladeshi individuals, we found that status consumption is positively influenced by susceptibility to interpersonal influence and need for uniqueness. We also found that the relationship between susceptibility to interpersonal influence and status consumption is partially mediated by the motivation to consume conspicuously. However, the results show that the relationship between need for uniqueness and status consumption is not mediated by the motivation to consume conspicuously.     

The effect of social networks structure on innovation performance: A review and directions for research

Research on growth of innovations introduced to the market has gradually shifted its focus from aggregate-level diffusion to exploring how growth is influenced by a given social network structure's characteristics. In this paper, we critically review this branch of literature. We argue that the growth of an innovation in a social network is shaped by the network's structure. Borrowing from the field of industrial organization in economics, which defines itself as the study of the effect of market structure on market performance, we describe this new wave of research on growth of innovations as the effect of social network structure on innovation performance. Hence, social network structural characteristics should be incorporated into research on new product growth as well as into managerial marketing decisions such as targeting and new product seeding.We review how social network structure influences innovations' market performance. Specifically, we discuss (1) a networks' global characteristics, namely average degree, degree distribution, clustering, and degree assortativity; (2) dyadic characteristics, or the relationships between pairs of network members, namely tie strength and embeddedness; (3) intrinsic individual characteristics, namely opinion leadership and susceptibility; and (4) location-based individual characteristics, namely the degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality of an individual network member.Overall, we find that growth is particularly effective in networks that demonstrate the “3 Cs”: cohesion (strong mutual influence among its members), connectedness (high number of ties), and conciseness (low redundancy). We identify gaps in current knowledge, discuss the implications on managerial decision making, and suggest topics for future research.     

The path of least resistance: Regulatory resource depletion and the effectiveness of social influence techniques

Two experiments examine the role of regulatory resource depletion in the effectiveness of social influence techniques aimed at inducing consumer compliance. They test the two-step hypothesis that a) responding to the initial request stage of an influence technique requires self-control, thereby depleting one's limited resource of self-regulatory energy, and b) a state of regulatory resource depletion fosters the use of heuristics present in the persuasion context, which increases the odds of compliance with the target request of an influence technique. A first field experiment shows that yielding to initial requests (answering a series of questions) induces resource depletion. Experiment 2 demonstrates that a lower level of self-regulatory resources increases the extent of compliance with a request through the employment of the heuristic principle of authority. Together these results provide support for the prediction that regulatory resource depletion is important in explaining the effectiveness of social influence techniques.     

The influence of personal and social identity on the clothing consumption of adolescents

We consider the influence of personal and social identity among adolescents on the importance they attach to clothing products and brands. The conceptual framework includes more conventional variables such as socialization (family, peers, media, and celebrities) and individual characteristics (gender and grade level). Based on a sample of 1,596 French high school adolescents, our results highlight: (i) the influence of identity on the importance attached to product and brand; (ii) the mediating effects of personal and social identities; and (iii) the moderating effects of gender and grade level. We conclude with an analysis of theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of social support on customer satisfaction and citizenship behavior in online brand communities: The moderating role of support source

Customers often join online brand communities to seek support from others when they encounter product problems. Some customers who receive good social support exhibit customer citizenship behavior. This study develops a theoretical model to investigate how social support influences customer citizenship behavior through customer satisfaction with firms in online brand communities. Moreover, the moderating role of support source (i.e., firms vs. other customers) is measured. The research model is tested by using the Partial Least Squares technique. The results show that informational and emotional support significantly affects the customer citizenship behavior of providing feedback to the firm, recommendations, and helping other customers through customer satisfaction in online brand communities. Moreover, informational and emotional support from firms and other customers exert different effects on customer satisfaction.     

How social distance affects the intention and behavior of collaborative consumption: A study based on online car-hailing service

In recent years, advances in mobile communications technology have enabled collaborative consumption or product sharing between consumers on a large scale. Unlike traditional consumption, collaborative consumption is based on collaboration among individuals, so that the decision-making mechanisms of individual consumers may be different from those in traditional consumption scenarios. The current study focuses on how the social distance between consumers and drivers affects collaborative consumption intention in the case of online car-hailing services. In this study, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used as the foundational framework, and we innovatively add the concept of social distance to the TPB to form a new, and integrated model. We test the model based on data collected from 315 online car-hailing users. The results shows that behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, positively influence collaborative consumption intention and behavior. More interestingly, we find that social distance has both direct and indirect impacts on collaborative consumption intention: The greater the social distance, the lower the collaborative consumption intention. Moreover, social distance also moderates the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption intention. To be specific, the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption intention is weakened when consumers perceive less social distance. The results suggest that the integrated model has a stronger explanatory power on collaborative consumption behavior. This study enhances the traditional TPB model and offers insight into promoting collaborative consumption in the context of the sharing economy.     

How anticipated pride and guilt influence green consumption in the Middle East: The moderating role of environmental consciousness

This research empirically tests the combined effect of anticipated pride, anticipated guilt, and environmental consciousness in parallel to the Theory of Planned Behavior's main components on green purchase intention. For the first time, it also explores the interaction of environmental consciousness, anticipated pride, anticipated guilt, and attitude, respectively, on green purchase intention. Analysis of 304 responses collected from consumers in the United Arab Emirates revealed that environmental consciousness, attitude towards green products, anticipated pride, and anticipated guilt positively influence the intention to purchase green products, but not perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. Interestingly, anticipated pride increases green purchase intention under low level of environmental consciousness, while anticipated guilt decreases purchase intention. In contrast, anticipated guilt positively influences green purchase intention under high environmental consciousness, while anticipated pride does not. This study extends current knowledge related to green purchase behavior and provides a nuanced understanding of the influence of anticipated emotions. It also provides practical implications for marketers in the Middle East to formulate effective strategies to stimulate green products consumption.     

Adverse effect of social media on generation Z user's behavior: Government information support as a moderating variable

Social media emerged as a primary source of information among young users, but its severe effect on mental state due to information overload, still an area of concern for the researchers. Generation Z users' addiction to the mobile phone/gadgets is increasing with a rise in social media and consequently their behavioral outcomes have transformed completely. Nowadays behavioral issues including stress, fatigue, ‘fear of missing out’ and ‘phubbing’, anxiety etc. rising each day but the relationship among these issues and information overload is less examined. The social media users are unable to filter the trustworthy information due to its enormous size and thus role of information support from government becomes essential. The current study extends the S-O-R theory exploring relationship between the stimulus of enormous information on the responses generated among the Generation Z such as social media fatigue, ‘fear of missing out’, ‘phubbing’ and anxiety. The findings from a sample of 319 users belonging to Generation Z suggest that social media platforms need to understand user's compulsive usage that is resulting into fatigue and consequently anxiety. The role of government information support on reducing fatigue and anxiety is found to be positive. The relationship between ‘fear of missing out’, ‘phubbing’ and anxiety is found significant and shows presence of partial mediation. The study offers significant theoretical and practical implications. It is significant for the service providers and social media platforms to advance interfaces with minimum fatigue for the users and offers information support to the users to reduce stress caused by information load.